LEARNING OUTCOMES

The module is intended to provide a knowledge overview of 20th century Polish theatre forms, together with the Hebrew and the Yiddish theater, which in this country was born.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students must be able to orient themselves and understand Polish literature of the twentieth century, in particular as regards the general themes of teaching. They will have to know at least in broad terms the complex geo-political history of Poland of the last century. They will also have acquired a first knowledge of translation techniques from Polish into Italian and will be able, through group work and on-line support, to carry out simple translations from literary texts.

TEACHING METHODS

Frontal lessons. Reading, explanation and commentary in class of some of the main texts. At least once during the semester students will be asked to prepare, in small groups of two or three people, a brief comment on one of the topics covered and to present it to the rest of the class

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

This teaching is part of the research project “MemWar. Memories of Wars and Traumas of the Twentieth century” of the LCM Department (https://memwarunige.hypotheses.org/). Students are warmly invited to participate in the theatrical laboratory on the memory of wars (for info and registration https://corsi.unige.it/8740/news/5566-laboratorio-teatrale-narramondo-p…). Participation in the theater workshop entitles you to 3 CFUs.

Teaching’s keywords: Memory: Cultural memory; Individual memory; Collective memory; Shared memory, Postmemory; Places of memory; Cultural texts

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The aim of the course is to present students with an overview of 20th-century Polish literature using the theme of humor, satire and the spirit of contradiction as a guiding file. The image of Poland as a country dedicated to punitive remembrance, the evocation of ghosts and mourning must in fact necessarily be tempered with the other side of national character, enjoyable, light and biting.

In the twentieth century, the greatest representatives of this humorous Poland were the novelist Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), the great author of epigrams and aphorisms Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909-1966), e), the playwright Slawomir Mrozek (1930-2013) and the poet Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012), winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1996.

The study of these authors will also allow an in-depth reflection on the translation of their works (in the cases of Lec and Szymborska, the unparalleled translator was my predecessor to the chair of Polish Studies in Genua, Pietro Marchesani) and on the linguistic use of metaphor.

The first month of teaching will have a different theme and, on the occasion of its centenary, will be dedicated to the writer Gustaw Herling Grudzinski (Kielce 1919- Naples 2000). The chair of Polish Studies of the University of Genoa joins the national project launched by the Polish Institute of Rome, proposing to the students the translation of two short passages of this author and a stay in Naples in his footsteps, organized by the Polish Institute, on October 24th-26th.

The teaching will be supplemented by two international conferences on the topics of translation, whose program will be provided at the beginning of the academic year. A further integration could be provided by a meeting with Erasmus professors and a lesson with international lecturers on Ukraine, an integral part of the Kingdom of Poland for centuries.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fragments from  Witold Gobrowicz, Slawomir Mrozek, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Wislaw Szymborska and Gustaw Herling Grudzinski will be indicated shortly. We will also read passages from Laura Salmon, The Mechanisms of Humor

The Program for NON ATTENDING students will be defined personally with the teacher

Before entering the exam, at least one week in advance, all students, attending or not, will have to prepare a short paper (one or two pages), on one of the topics of teaching, following the instructions in the file Norme per tesi e tesine  available in the Teacher’s Page